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The New Jersey Health Care Reform Act of 2008, signed into law on July 7, 2008, mandated that all children in the state have health care coverage either through public programs or private coverage. The Act also directed the Commissioner of the NJ Department of Human Services (DHS) to establish an Outreach, Enrollment, and Retention Work Group (Work Group) to develop a plan to implement ongoing and sustainable measures to strengthen outreach and maximize enrollment of children in available health coverage programs. As part of their efforts, DHS Commissioner, Jennifer Velez, and the Work Group asked the Center for State Health Policy to prepare estimates of the number of uninsured children who may be eligible for NJ FamilyCare or NJ FamilyCare Advantage (the expansion program through which families with income above 350% of poverty can purchase low-cost coverage for their children).
The Center for State Health Policy estimates that there are 223,720 children who are uninsured and income-eligible for NJ FamilyCare, and an additional 56,070 eligible for NJ FamilyCare Advantage, for a total of 279,790 children. The Figures below provide detailed break-outs of the number of uninsured children and uninsured rates among income and racial/ethnic subgroups. Figure 1 shows that children living in the lowest income families represent the largest group of uninsured and have the highest uninsured rate. Figure 2 shows the racial/ethnic distributions of uninsured children who are income-eligible for NJ FamilyCare. Hispanic children have the highest uninsured rates, and represent the largest share of the income-eligible uninsured population.Figure 1: % Uninsured Children Income-Eligible for Public Coverage*
Figure 2: % Uninsured Children Income-Eligible for NJ FamilyCare
by Race/Ethnicity*
*Source: Current Population Survey, March Annual Social and Economic Supplement 2001-02; New Jersey Family Health Survey
Links to Additional Resources:
- NJ FamilyCare Outreach, Enrollment and Retention Report
- Estimates
of Children and Parents without Health Insurance in New Jersey:
Report to the NJ FamilyCare Outreach, Enrollment, and Retention Work Group - CSHP Counting the Uninsured Fact Sheet
- Full-Cost Buy-In Options for Optimizing Coverage through NJ FamilyCare
- NJ FamilyCare Express Enrollment: Report on the Pilot Program
- Is There Differential Retention of Children with Special Health Care Needs in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program?
- The Effect of Parental Enrollment on Retention of Children in NJ FamilyCare
On July 7, 2008, Governor Jon S. Corzine signed legislation expanding coverage for children in New Jersey and modifying rules governing the non-group and small employer health insurance programs. State policymakers drew on the results of a series of studies published by CSHP since 2001 describing the uninsured population and evaluating policy options.
Key Points of Legislation (S1557/A2624):
- Sets the stage for requiring insurance coverage of all children 18 and younger, through employer-sponsored coverage, other private insurance or NJ FamilyCare expansions.
- Appropriates funds for enhanced outreach to identify and enroll children eligible for state-sponsored coverage.
- Reinstates eligibility for coverage of parents at income levels up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) to enroll in NJ FamilyCare.
- Modifies rules in the non-group insurance market from pure community rating to premiums that are permitted to vary by age, and makes other changes in the regulation of private health insurance to improve efficiency and affordability of coverage.
- Implements changes to eligibility criteria, terms, and administration of continued dependent coverage for dependents 30 years of age or younger.
Links for Additional Details about the Legislation:
Legislation
Governor's Office Press Release - July 7th, 2008Testimony before the Legislature on S1557/A2624 by CSHP director Joel Cantor summarizes major findings from the Center’s research relevant to the new law (Comment on S1557/A2624 – A Bill to Expand Health Insurance Coverage ).Below are links to selected CSHP studies that supported the new reforms and addresses ongoing challenges to covering the uninsured in New Jersey
FIRST STATE HEALTH SYSTEM SCORECARD FINDS MIXED PICTURE FOR NEW JERSEY, MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE
A new comparison of health care performance across the states paints a mixed picture for New Jersey and points to significant opportunities for improvement. The report, Aiming Higher: Results from a State Scorecard on Health System Performance, was supported by a grant from The Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based philanthropy,and compared each state to real world benchmarks for what has been achieved in states across the country. Co-authored by CSHP director Joel Cantor and senior research analyst Dina Belloff, and issued by The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, the Scorecard is the first report to assess on a state-by-state basis how the health system is performing.
The report ranks states on 32 indicators grouped in five categories that include access, quality, avoidable hospital use and cost, equity and healthy lives. Overall, New Jersey ranks 26th on the Scorecard; below its neighbors Connecticut (7th), Delaware (14th), Pennsylvania (15th) and New York (22nd). New Jersey does very well on many quality indicators, but ranks near the bottom on avoidable use of expensive hospital care and high health care costs. The State shows just average performance on access, equitable care and healthy lives.
The full report describing patterns across all of the states and detailed findings for New Jersey are available on The Commonwealth Fund web site.
Studies by the Center for State Health Policy
Access to affordable, high quality health care has long been one of New Jersey’s highest public policy priorities. In 2005, there were over 1.3 million New Jersey residents without health insurance coverage, and private-sector family premiums in this state were 11% higher than the national average. In spite of these challenges, New Jersey continues to be on the forefront of policy initiatives to address the coverage problem.
Since its inception in 1999, the Center for State Health Policy has worked to provide impartial rigorous research to support health policy decision making in New Jersey. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, federal grants, and the State of New Jersey, the Center has conducted a broad range of in-depth studies on New Jersey's health coverage problems and potential policy solutions. Links to the most recent CSHP work on coverage are provided below:
